DSG elections need rethinking

Every year I see the same thing. People run for Duke Student Government, they create these "platforms" and make many promises to the student body. Facebook groups are created, fliers made and signs hung. You see junior Elliott Wolf walk around in a suit. Why? The promises are rarely fulfilled, the fliers litter the campus, making some poor employee spend hours cleaning them up, and although Wolf looks dapper, does he really do anything?

What we need is a grassroots campaign that eases up on the promises and the wasteful abuse of fliers, basing its success purely on charisma. A perfect example of this occurred two years ago at N.C. State. The Pirate Captain, as the student referred to himself, walked around campus everyday dressed as a pirate, complete with eye patch and parrot. He simply let the wackiness of his idea be the campaign, and he took the election by storm. Most people in the student government community criticized his actions as making too much of a joke out of the organization. The voters disagreed because they, like many of us at Duke, are sick of the futility of student government.

Now I am not saying everyone running for DSG should dress up as a pirate, ninja, wench or other recycled Halloween costume, but ultimately, we need something new. No more promises you don't intend to keep, and somebody please clean up those fliers. If you post 2,000 fliers, you and no one else should have to clean them up. Didn't your mothers teach you to clean up after yourselves?

Daniel Freedman

Trinity '08